Plain-language reference
Glossary
Short definitions for words that builders often use as if everyone already agrees on their meaning. The longer Concepts pages explain the tradeoffs behind the most important terms.
A
- Artifact
- Something produced by the work that another person can inspect: a commit, screenshot, prototype, note, test result, design, or release.
- Audience
- People who repeatedly pay attention to your work. An audience is not automatically a customer base or community.
B
- Build in Public
- The deliberate practice of sharing selected evidence, decisions, and lessons while work is developing.
- Builder
- Anyone creating and improving something concrete. The word does not imply a company, job title, or level of success.
C
- Call to action
- The one action you ask a reader to take, such as trying a demo, answering a question, installing a project, or purchasing a version.
- Case study
- A structured examination of what someone did, when they did it, the evidence available, and which lessons may transfer to another situation.
- Changelog
- A chronological record of meaningful product or project changes, usually shorter and more factual than a progress story.
D
- Demo
- A direct demonstration of the current outcome, preferably using the real product or artifact rather than an imagined final version.
- Distribution
- The systems and channels that help relevant people discover, understand, and return to the work.
F
- Feedback
- Evidence about a person's experience. Feedback informs a decision; it does not make the decision for you.
- Feedback loop
- A repeatable cycle of making, showing, observing, deciding, changing, and reporting what happened.
I
- Indie hacking
- Building and operating an independent product or small business with a strong preference for autonomy and direct learning from customers.
L
- Launch
- A focused moment when a specific version becomes discoverable and a specific group is invited to take a specific action.
- Learning log
- A record of observations, decisions, mistakes, and changed understanding created during the work.
M
- Milestone
- A meaningful change in capability, evidence, or direction. A round follower count can be celebrated, but it is not necessarily a project milestone.
- MVP
- The smallest version that lets a real person attempt a real outcome and gives the builder useful evidence.
- Metric
- A quantitative observation. A useful metric is connected to a decision; a vanity metric mainly describes attention.
P
- Positioning
- The context that helps a particular person understand what the project is, whom it serves, and why it differs from alternatives.
- Progress update
- A dated account of what changed, what was learned, what remains difficult, and what comes next.
- Public home
- The durable URL where a new reader can understand the project, its current state, and the next useful action.
S
- Shipping
- Making a meaningful change available to another person in a form they can inspect, use, or respond to.
- Storytelling
- Organizing true events, tensions, choices, and consequences so another person can understand the journey without replacing evidence with drama.
V
- Validation
- Evidence that reduces uncertainty about a specific assumption. Validation is not a permanent certificate that an idea will succeed.
- Vanity metric
- A number that looks impressive but does not clearly help you understand behavior or choose the next action.
Need the deeper explanation?
Explore the Concepts library